Book 48 Chapter 1 – The Quick-footed Climb Up First[1]
Hearing Chi Shengchun’s footsteps as he flew toward the middle section, Xu Ziling, who was stepping into the side garden, secretly scolded himself for being stupid; why didn’t he think that the ‘Han Lin Qing Yuan Tu’ was hidden at the place where it ought to be hidden the most, which was inside the study room. Collecting this kind of original painting required special skill, one must pay particular attention to cold and hot, dry and humid, otherwise if it was moldy or damaged by moths or worms, the treasure would turn into trash. Hence dark and damp dungeons were not suitable at all. It seemed like to be a cultured thief was not an easy matter, one must have general knowledge in this regard.
That Martial Uncle Xu leaped to the roof of the study room; he took the responsibility of keeping watch and holding his disposition of troops.
Xu Ziling flashed to a dark place by the wall at the corner of the house, he focused his power into his ears, both to avoid being detected by that Martial Uncle Xu above, also to listen to the movements at the other side of the wall. Relying on his effective and sharp sense of hearing, he monitored in every possible way Chi Shengchun’s every movement inside the study room.
Chi Shengchun’s breathing was rapid and shallow, obviously he was worried about personal gains and losses; he was nervous. And then there was the noise of mechanism being activated, the lock being opened and a series of other noises. Apparently there was some kind of secret compartment in the study room to be used to keep precious painting and calligraphy or documents or something like that.
Martial Uncle Xu shouted in low voice from above, “Is it there?”
Chi Shengchun blew out a mouthful of air very slowly, and then there was a noise of the picture scroll being pulled open to be examined, while he replied at the same time, “That stinky kid was really only playing a joke, Xu Shishu, please be careful!”
Martial Uncle Xu snorted coldly and said, “I wish he really dared to come out of his hole and steal the treasure.”
Xu Ziling was continuously amassing his power in order to succeed at the first attempt; hearing that, he snickered inwardly, musing that it would happen as you wish. But when he was about to act, unexpectedly Martial Uncle Xu above let out a cry of alarm, followed by a string of firecracker-like noise of clashing qi power.
Unexpectedly there was another elegant thief trying to steal the treasured painting? This person should have been lying in wait on the side and only made his move at this moment. Furthermore, based on Xu Ziling’s power in this day and age, unexpectedly he did not detected his presence, therefore, the newcomer must be a martial art master of Shi Zhixuan’s caliber.
Things happened too fast, Xu Ziling was shocked; while he was unsure whether he ought to immediately join this completely-without-any-warning, suddenly-happened struggle over the treasured painting, Martial Uncle Xu was already blown off the roof by a punch, and then the lights inside the study room turned dark, followed by Chi Shengchun’s miserable groan and unending cry of alarm, the sound of chair overturning and objects falling, and then the gust of wind was moving far away.
Xu Ziling sighed inwardly for his bad luck, but he was also greatly curious; who might be this formidable? That Martial Uncle Xu was evidently a first-class martial art master of the demonic school, yet in just a moment of face-to-face confrontation he was already beaten. And then he also calmly snatched the treasured painting from Chi Shengchun’s hands.
The gust of wind had gone far, Xu Ziling had no choice but to follow.
※ ※ ※
Kou Zhong stopped suddenly. On the official road ahead, one person was standing proudly, laughing aloud, and said, “Didn’t Shaoshuai want to be Wang Shichong’s hunting dog? How come you have the leisure to take a walk away from the camp?”
Kou Zhong stepped forward in big strides and stopped when he was about ten paces away from the man blocking his way. Blurted out laughing, he said, “Turns out it’s Xuyan Xiong; Huan Mo Shenfa’s name is indeed not in vain, unexpectedly you are able to become a little feathered thief rushing ahead of Xiaodi to block the road to waylay and rob. Currently Xiaodi is penniless; however, a cheap life, I do have one. If you want to take it, then we’ll have to see whether Xuyan Xiong has the ability?”
Unexpectedly it was the ‘Shadow Assassin’ Yang Xuyan. Needless to say, he must be waiting secretly outside the camp, seeing Kou Zhong leaving the camp, he followed behind him and then showed himself here to intercept. Because Kou Zhong’s mind was in chaos, he was indulging in flights of fancy, plus Yang Xuyan was an expert in concealing his track, in a moment of losing consciousness, he was unaware that this formidable opponent was following behind him.
Yang Xuyan wore black hood to cover his head and a set of nightwalker attire on his body, his build was imposing yet nimble. His pair of eyes emitted a fierce and severe expression, he spoke indifferently, “The name of Shaoshuai’s Eight Methods of the Well shook the heavens, who’d dare to boast that he could take Shaoshuai’s life? However, Xuyan saw Shaoshuai and Qin Wang’s fierce battle for a long time, I couldn’t help getting unbearably itchy, moreover, I do not want to miss a good opportunity for no reason, hence I simply must try to decide the high and low between us.”
Smiling wryly, Kou Zhong said, “Xuyan Xiong has seen it very accurately. To be honest, today I have not stopped at all, the wear and tear to my true energy is substantial. Ay! Could it be that Xuyan Xiong has a lot of time? There is no need to talk nonsense, make your move immediately to see whose real move is the right thing.”
‘Qiang!’
Yang Xuyan pulled the Shadow Sword, which has stabbed countless targets that they nursed a grievance without knowing what hit them, and shot out a powerful sword qi, pressing down on Kou Zhong. “In that case, Xuyan will no longer be courteous!” he spoke coldly.
Kou Zhong took a step back, he drew the Moon in the Well from his back, and pointed it to the opponent from a distance to contend against the other side’s overbearingly fierce and severe sword qi. He spoke in great astonishment, “No wonder Xuyan Xiong is so secure in knowledge that you have backing. Turns out your swordsmanship has made great progress, there is indeed the possibility of putting Xiaodi in order, so that Xiaodi immediately feel greatly excited and I’m sure it will be satisfying.”
The sword qi Yang Xuyan was shooting out was continuously growing in intensity, as well as becoming more and more concentrated, yet the tone of his voice remained tranquil without any ripple as he spoke coldly, “That time I suffered disgrace from Shaoshuai, how could Xuyan dare to forget so soon? Shaoshuai must not blame Xuyan for taking advantage of someone’s precarious position, because this has always been Xuyan’s style, but also the natural color an assassin should have. En garde!”
※ ※ ※
Without creating any noise at all Xu Ziling sprang up to the top of a tree; he barely caught the person’s shadow flashing into a small two-storied building at the side of the rear garden of another magnificent residence inside a high wall.
This grand residence was located at Buzheng Lane on the eastern bank of Yong’an Canal, those who were able to live in this lane must be wealthy and respectable people, it was only separated by one street, the Anhua Street, with the imperial palace. Since it was in the dead of the night, inside the residence the lamp was black and the fire dark, evidently everybody inside already entered the land of dreams early on.
Xu Ziling was able to follow to this place, it could be said that he exhausted everything he had. This ‘qianbei’ [Senior], who seemed to luckily pick up big convenience, had an exceptionally high martial art skill. Upon self-inspection, Xu Ziling did not have any confidence that he could grab the treasured painting back from his hands; thereupon he temporarily changed his mind and only intended to ‘steal’ the thing back from his hands.
In order to achieve this goal, he definitely must not let the other side discover that someone was following quietly behind him; consequently, Xu Ziling had to rely on his spirited senses, which surpassed ordinary person, to trail him from far behind, and only this moment that he caught a glimpse of his back.
A strange feeling of familiarity floated in his mind; he seemed to have seen such body build and bearing somewhere else, but momentarily he could not remember who this person was. At the same time, he felt at a loss. From the architectural point of view, the site of this rear garden was far from the magnificent residence’s main complex, like a small two-storied building that the world has forgotten; why would they design it so that it appeared to be more tastefully chosen and exquisite than the main residence? It really did not make any sense; unless the master of the residence was an eccentric and elegant scholar, who loved to hide in here to enjoy the peaceful and quiet atmosphere of the rear garden.
Xu Ziling sighed inwardly. He had never thought that the scroll of painting theft unexpectedly had so many twists and turns [orig. calligraphic flourish with many twists]. Tomorrow, Hou kid would be extremely disappointed. What should he do now? The most ideal would be if the other party immediately brought the treasured painting out of the small building, then he would be able to see where that person was hiding the painting; the moment the other side stepped out, in the next moment he would enter in, to be a Papa thief to steal the painting away.
It was just a pity that after that person entered the building, it was like throwing a stone and seeing it sink without a trace in the sea, he no longer made any movement. If as soon as he got here, this person simply lie down and sleep, would he have to wait until he woke up at daybreak before he could peek for any movement? But tomorrow morning, Anhua Street would be busy with people coming and going, this big tree by the street would no longer be a place where he could hide.
Very well!
He had no choice but to wait until daybreak, to see if Laotianye would be willing to bestow him a good chance tonight!
※ ※ ※
Kou Zhong had deep regret in his heart; Yang Xuyan, this bad guy really knew how to select the best of time. Speaking about frame of mind, Kou Zhong could not be more inferior than this; he had just a big fallout with Wang Shichong, they parted on bad terms, he was both frustrated and at a loss. Speaking about situation, he has had hard battle all day long, he was physically and emotionally exhausted, while more than a dozen wounds on his body, big and small, had not healed yet.
This kid was clearly taking advantage of someone else’s precarious position, only from his usual style of secret assassination, he changed it into killing openly; cursing him for his despicable means would only be senseless and superfluous.
Kou Zhong stirred up an enormous will to fight, he struggled hard to amass his power, and discovered that in that moment, he could, at most, use only fifty- to sixty-percent of his normal power. If the opponent were not Yang Xuyan but someone else, even if he could not beat him, he could still think of a way to flee in defeat. But Yang Xuyan’s Huan Mo Shenfa, which he inherited from Shi Zhixuan, simply cause him to kill this thought; merely by looking at how from the camp he pursued to this place, plus he rushed in front of Kou Zhong to intercept, unless he was an idiot, he knew that there was no way that he could run away from Yang Xuyan.
Standing ten steps away, Yang Xuyan laughed aloud, the Shadow Sword in his hand suddenly turned into ten million sharp lights, reflecting the starlight and moonlight in the sky above, filling the air and sprinkling toward him, like a wall, like the blocking qi power was turning into countless points of qi power like sharp needles pricking his skin, along with no-hole-not-penetrated sword move with myriad changes, attacking violently toward him, clearly taking unfair advantage of Kou Zhong’s body-weary-strength-worn-out condition, using ten-thousand-jun-thunderbolt momentum seeking a spurt of energy to put him to death by all means.
This was the second time he fought hand to hand with Yang Xuyan, he knew that Yang Xuyan’s creation, the Shadow Sword Technique specialized in ‘strange danger’ method, a trick where the tip of the sword was turning into beautiful sharp lights to confuse the opponent, like a serpent or a scorpion’s beauty, which concealed fatal murderous move inside her beautiful external appearance.
Kou Zhong stood straight and motionless. Narrowing his pair of eyes, without blinking at all he fixed his gaze on the bright dots of light hiding the sky and covering the earth like exploding fireworks, purely relying on the true qi protecting his body to withstand the opponent’s bits of qi power, which were as sharp as saber blade.
The sharp points attacked to about five chi in front of Kou Zhong, but suddenly pulled back and turned into a ball of bright light, about a chi in diameter, consisted of sharp dots; so brilliant that it made people could not believe their own eyes. What Kou Zhong saw was no longer the Shadow Sword, but a spirited object that was beyond any words could describe.
Now, this was Yang Xuyan’s true skill.
‘Qiang!’
The Moon in the Well suddenly changed move; raised high above his head, it seemed to be chopping, but not exactly chopping. It was precisely the ‘No Attack’ variant.
Laughing heartily, Yang Xuyan said, “Shaoshuai is tired!” He did not seem to be moving either, but suddenly he was already by Kou Zhong’s left side. The sharp lights, like a pillar of waterfall, rushing out toward his cheek, the qi power creating an ear piercing whistling noise, pressing down on Kou Zhong’s eardrums.
The Shadow Sword Technique was designed to target the opponent’s senses; even with Kou Zhong’s capability, under Yang Xuyan’s unique school’s sword style’s all-around assault, his usually acute spirit was greatly affected.
Kou Zhong shifted sideways, he seemed to be casually brandishing the Moon in the Well to attack, to hack into the center of the circle of light.
‘Ding!’
The dots of light dissipated.
The Moon in the Well hit the sword blade head-on.
Immediately half of Kou Zhong’s body went numb, he cried ‘Bad!’ inwardly, knowing that because the wear and tear to his true energy was excessive, he could no longer overpower this vile opponent in term of internal strength.
Yang Xuyan’s face revealed an astonished look, he said, “Shaoshuai has made a lot of progress!” The sword blade vibrated, it turned into three dots of refined light in triangular shape stamping toward Kou Zhong. Simultaneously, his feet moved in strange steps, altering shape to change shadow, suddenly he shifted behind Kou Zhong’s back. The offensive from Kou Zhong’s left side changed into an attack from the rear, rapid like a ghost, so that fantasy appeared to be reality.
For lack of better option, Kou Zhong spun around and brandished his saber to sweep backward. Although fully aware that by moving around like this he would aggravate the wear and tear to his true energy and qi, but he was unable to take back the initiative from Yang Xuyan’s hands, he could only counter every move, and was led by the opponent by the nose.
If this situation could not be reversed, Kou Zhong would end up nursing a grievance.
‘Dang! Dang! Dang!’ The sound of saber and sword clashing against each other rang unendingly. Kou Zhong was constantly spinning outside to evade, while Yang Xuyan’s Shadow Sword was like a maggot stuck to the bone, like a rainstorm attacking Kou Zhong head-on, not giving him any chance to breathe.
Kou Zhong cried inwardly, ‘Help!’ even more, knowing that if this situation continued, if he was forced to fight speed with speed, then the one to suffer losses would be him.
In this life and death crisis, Kou Zhong suddenly stopped. The Moon in the Well moved forward and swiftly poked upward. This move was greatly beyond Yang Xuyan’s expectation; he never thought that Kou Zhong could reverse his true qi and convert movement and stillness, that he could stop as soon as he wanted to stop. The most formidable part was that this saber strike was a move to die in such a way that the other side also perished, completely ignoring his sword attack, the saber blade swiftly attacked the vital part on his throat.
The blood splashed.
On Kou Zhong’s left shoulder, the skin was opened and his flesh was cut, his clothes shattered.
On the other hand, just as the blade of Kou Zhong’s saber was only a hairsbreadth away from his throat, Yang Xuyan flew two zhang back, and returned to standing-opposite-of-each-other position.
Severe pain spread from the wound to the entire body; fortunately, in order to evade the saber blade, the other side could only spit out true power for a short period of time, so that the wound was only skin and flesh.
However, the pain seemed to wake Kou Zhong up from the nightmare; he discharged the vile mood completely out of his brain, and drove his mind into the Moon in the Well realm.
Yang Xuyan’s sword blade pointed at Kou Zhong from a distance, he laughed indifferently and said, “How did this sword taste like?”
Smiling, Kou Zhong replied, “Very good! Watch the saber!”
Suffering untold hardships [idiom: after some effort] he disregarded his injury to equalize the inferior situation, which was clearly leaning toward the opponent, naturally he did not want to miss the opportunity to take the initiative to attack.
But it was not like Yang Xuyan was deliberately giving Kou Zhong the opportunity to take a breather; rather, the Moon in the Well in Kou Zhong’s hand appeared to be attacking, but not exactly attacking, it appeared to be defending, but not exactly defending, so that he was unable to see through, unable to figure it out, hence he did not dare to take the risk to advance.
This was the first time Yang Xuyan encountered an opponent that after receiving his stab, he became even more unfathomably formidable instead.
Kou Zhong’s Moon in the Well seemed to be splitting an empty air, it appeared clumsy but was actually skillful, it shot perfectly straight toward Yang Xuyan.
Emotionally moved, Yang Xuyan exclaimed, “Good saber!” The Shadow Sword drew a complete circle, creating the illusion of light and shadow, enveloping the Moon in the Well.
Kou Zhong laughed aloud. The saber momentum accelerated, it hit right in the center of the circle.
‘Zheng!’
The Shadow Sword twisted around the Moon in the Well, and then it exploded into sword rain filling the air. The two men retreated back to their original positions, the saber and the sword pointed at each other over a distance.
Although Kou Zhong did not occupy any advantageous position, but he was delighted instead of being alarmed, simply because he knew that he succeeded to equalize his inferior position, and was no longer under Yang Xuyan’s control.
Quick as lightning Yang Xuyan darted forward, the Shadow Sword turned into dots of sword rain again, burst by burst, it attacked Kou Zhong from different angles. Combined with his Huan Mo Shenfa, each change he made to his position was beyond other people’s expectation, violent attacks and fierce strikes were coming straight toward Kou Zhong from four sides, eight directions, carrying with it rocking-the-mountain-shaking-the-peak momentum.
Kou Zhong stood straight like a mountain. Using the ‘Battle Decision’ of the Eight Methods of the Well, he met the opponent’s mercury-flowing-swiftly style of offensive head-on. The Moon in the Well opening and closing vertically and horizontally, free, unconstrained, and smooth. Using strange to oppose strange, using danger to control danger, from time to time he used risky move of mutual destruction, enduring and blocking the Shadow Sword Technique, which could scare people all over the world out of their wits.
The qi power screamed, the heaven and the earth lost their color.
Suddenly Kou Zhong’s saber hacked down on an empty space, it was as if Yang Xuyan’s Shadow Sword obediently moved to let itself be chopped down by the saber.
‘Chess Abundant!’
It was only this moment that for the first time Kou Zhong was able to see through Yang Xuyan’s sword momentum, while also able to save his own little life. Otherwise, if he let Yang Xuyan display his full power continuously like this, the one collapsing would definitely be him, Kou Zhong.
‘Dang!’
Severely shaken, Yang Xuyan pulled back, all his style-changes were completely sealed by Kou Zhong, without any possibility to continue. The stream of Kou Zhong’s vortex of energy was even more unbearable, leaving him no choice but to withdraw.
Kou Zhong’s saber light flared out severely. His condition was already nearing the lamp-with-the-oil-drying-up level, he was not able to hold up much longer, how could he be willing to miss this golden opportunity? Unleashing the ‘Rapid Battle’ of the Eight Methods of the Well, he launched counterattack at full strength.
Momentarily a string of ringing noise was heard. The Moon in the Well transformed complexity into simplicity, in a straightforward manner saber strike after saber strike chopped down on Yang Xuyan, each saber strike was lightning fast, nimble like fireworks. The angle and the timing were accurate beyond human comprehension, not one was not aimed at Yang Xuyan’s weak point. Sometimes it appeared to shake powerfully, sometimes it appeared to be looking at a weakness and attacked that position.
Even with Yang Xuyan’s ability, under Kou Zhong’s overbearing offensive, he could only block and retreat to the other side of the official road. However, he was not retreating because he was no match for the enemy; rather, he was evading the sharp blade of the saber while looking for the opportunity to strike back.
‘Ding!’
The Shadow Sword poked the tip of the Moon in the Well’s blade from below. Kou Zhong was severely shaken and retreated swiftly.
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Surprisingly, Yang Xuyan did not seize the opportunity to pursue and attack. He stood still holding the sword horizontally across his chest, and threw his head back in long laughter and said, “Speaking about saber technique, I am afraid that after the ‘Heavenly Saber’ Song Que, it will be your turn, ‘Shaoshuai’ Kou Zhong!”
Standing two zhang away, Kou Zhong regrouped his troop disposition, adopting a battle array. Greatly astonished, he said, “Didn’t you, LaoGe want to kill me? Why miss a great opportunity?”
Yang Xuyan said with a sigh, “I already tested what is true and what is false in Shaoshuai, I speculated that I’d probably be able to put Kou Xiong to death; however, it will definitely be difficult to avoid Kou Xiong’s counterattack before your death. Ay! The fact is, Xiaodi has an important matter to attend to, I can’t suffer any injury. Therefore, I have no choice but to end this battle at this point.”
Kou Zhong still felt Yang Xuyan’s sword qi tightly locked onto him, naturally he did not dare to naively believe him and relax his defense. He laughed and said, “Honestly, it was only a bit more and Yang Xiong would be able to take my, Kou Zhong’s little life away. Why don’t you try again? Otherwise you’d miss tonight’s opportunity, and afterwards the one who must be worried will be you, LaoGe, and not Xiaodi.”
Yang Xuyan returned the sword into its sheath, and slowly opened his hood, revealing a handsome, noble countenance. His straight and erect nose bridge, and firm and persistent corner of his mouth formed a distinct contrast to his pair of sharp-like-an-eagle’s, cold-hearted eyes, which was fixed on Kou Zhong without blinking at all. His high, flat and broad forehead seemed to contain infinite confidence and intelligence, his jet-black hair was combed toward the back of his head, ended in a bun on top of his head.
Greatly surprised, Kou Zhong said, “Why do Yang Xiong show me preferential treatment?”
Yang Xuyan replied indifferently, “We are on the same place, and we both have the same objective, that is, Shaoshuai wants to obtain something that does not belong to you, while I want to retrieve something that should belong to me. As for why I did not dare to take risks, it’s all because I am not used to take risks. Every time I assassinate my target, I always have a thorough and detailed plan, plus complete confidence; it appeared to be risky, but it’s actually not risky at all. Shaoshuai could dodge two times, that does not mean that you will be able to dodge the third time. Shaoshuai, please!”
Kou Zhong’s scalp went numb, he looked at Yang Xuyan disappearing inside the forest by the road; inwardly he felt something was greatly amiss, yet he was clearly unable to do anything about it. Without any better option, he continued his journey to go see Xu Ziling.
1 Chapter title: idiom: the early bird catches the worm.